Knowing Christ in the Last Hour

Jesus Is Our Advocate

John writes so that his readers may not sin. But if anyone does sin, he does not send that person back to a new cleansing ritual. He points to Jesus Christ the righteous, our advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1–2). This is where confidence belongs when we have failed.

That follows directly from John's opening chapter. The apostles proclaimed Christ to bring others into fellowship with the Father and Son. Now John speaks to those in that fellowship and tells them what they have in Jesus. Their sins are forgiven for His name's sake (1 John 2:12). He does not describe forgiveness as something they must continually win back through their own work.

The contrast between law-based effort and the finished work of Christ runs through the chapter. If someone takes John's next words about commandments and turns them into a way to earn or preserve forgiveness, they have already moved away from the advocate John put before them.

Knowing Him and Keeping His Word

John says that we know we have come to know Christ if we keep His commandments (1 John 2:3–6). Those words can immediately set us thinking about the Law of Moses. But Jesus answered the question about doing God's works this way: believe in the One whom God has sent (John 6:28–29).

John is calling his readers to keep the truth about Christ rather than trade it for the claims of those trying to draw them away. A person who says “I know Him” while rejecting His word is not telling the truth. The one who remains in Christ ought to walk as Jesus walked, depending on the Father rather than on self-made righteousness. That is direction for the life they have received, not an invoice for it.

John then calls the commandment both old and new (1 John 2:7–8). Faith in God's promise was never meant to be replaced with confidence in works. In Christ the promised reality has appeared, and the true light is already shining. The old temple order was passing away; it would not be the lasting home of God's people. Believers in Christ belong to the new temple, His body. What Is the New Covenant? gives the wider covenant setting for that change.

Love and the World That Was Passing Away

The person who says he is in the light while hating his brother remains in darkness. The one who loves his brother abides in the light (1 John 2:9–11). John's words are not permission to turn love into a performance test. He has already grounded the believer in the advocacy of Christ. He is showing the difference between those who receive His life and those who oppose it.

John writes to children, fathers, and young men as people who know the Father, know the One from the beginning, and have overcome the evil one. Their sins are forgiven for His name's sake (1 John 2:12–14). Those are words of encouragement to believers facing deception, not a demand to begin their salvation again.

“Do not love the world,” he continues (1 John 2:15–17). In this setting, consider the status, wealth, and religious standing prized by those who opposed Jesus while trusting their own lawkeeping. All that they called their world was passing away. The body of Christ, made up of those who believe in the One the Father sent, belongs to a covenant that lasts.

The Last Hour and the Antichrists

John says plainly, “it is the last hour,” and gives his evidence: many antichrists have already come (1 John 2:18). He is speaking to his own first-century readers about a danger in front of them. Some had gone out from their fellowship. That departure could hurt people who had known them, but John does not tell the faithful to follow them out.

Who is the liar? John answers: the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ, denying the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22–23). The antichrist John describes is not a mysterious figure to hunt for thousands of years later. These were people opposing the Messiah and perverting the message the apostles had delivered. A message of Jesus plus the Law is no rescue from that deception.

John connects their appearance to the passing of the old age. His readers were living before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. His “last hour” made sense in that world. The language of an imminent end must first be heard by the people to whom it was spoken.

Remain in What You Heard from the Beginning

John tells believers that they have been anointed by the Holy One and know the truth (1 John 2:20–21). He writes to remind them, because deception is pressing against what they already know. The lie does not make Christ less certain. The truth they received from the apostles is their place to stand.

“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you,” John says. If it does, they abide in the Son and in the Father, and the promise is eternal life (1 John 2:24–25). He is pointing them back to Christ, not toward a more elaborate religious system.

John closes by urging them to abide in Him so they may have confidence at His appearing (1 John 2:28–29). The coming wrath was not aimed at those made righteous in Christ. They could stand without shame while the temple order and those who rejected the Messiah faced the judgment Jesus had warned about. Chapter 3 carries that encouragement into the identity of God's children and the love He has given them.